Flu and church

Posted Tuesday, September 15, 2009, at 10:03 AM

As an interesting sidelight to our flu coverage today, I thought I'd pass along a blog post by religion writer Peter Smith of the Louisville Courier-Journal. Peter is a friend and former college classmate of mine.

Here's how it starts:

Church leaders should consider serving communion while wearing surgical masks and gloves, have worshippers sit in alternate rows and clean children's toys with bleach after every class.

Those are some of the recommendations for church in the time of flu, according to the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

I think germs are spread so easy in churches because everyone is shaking hands with each other. Maybe we need to come up with an alternative method of greeting each other.

-- Posted by bellbuckletn on Tue, Sep 15, 2009, at 3:58 PM

You can always do what we have done at my place of employment. We've gone to the Howe Mandel fist bump to help stop the spread the germs that could cause the flu.

-- Posted by docudrama on Wed, Sep 16, 2009, at 7:45 AM

I always carry hand sanitizer with me, but if my family is feeling bad we stay home. He just got over having influenza type a.

-- Posted by 4fabfelines on Wed, Sep 16, 2009, at 11:03 AM

It would be good to give people permission to stay home if they would be particularly vulnerable to harm if they caught an ailment as well telling sick folks to quarantine themselves until they are no longer contagious.

We hear a lot about these precautions at high risk times but there are always dangers in exposing the immuno-compromised to newly vaccinated children and others who could pass on an infection they may not yet know they have.

Going to work,school or worship when one knows that one is harboring an illness is unfair to the innocents that could contract that disease.

The "bugs" can collect new genetic material to increase their potency and,while new victims are created,recovering victims can acquire secondary infections.

"Martyrdom" isn't praiseworthy if it does more harm than good.

Fellowship can be accomplished by reaching out to the soul and not just the body.

While we would be ill-advised to embrace a spirit of fear or deny God's healing power,it remains as valid a sign of spiritual love to protect another's body as it is to seek the welfare of the soul.

We needn't be reduced to wearing haz-mat suits or the cloaks and beaky masks of the plague doctors.

It is sufficient to use common sense,basic hygiene and a little consideration of others.

As a temporary adaptation,we can study scriptures at home,listen to teaching on t.v. or radio,commune with others via phone or internet and,for the healthy,support the shut-ins with gifts such as food,cards,plants.running errands for them and other practical demonstrations of our faith.

Few of us will get too sick or injured to pray on another's behalf.

Giving AND receiving help can be a kind of ministry we can all perform.

Sickness need not get in the way of our coming together.

It can just change how we exercise our interactions.

The same God who healed the lepers and rejoices when we show His love to those blighted by STDs or mental illness should have no problem with precautions based on concern for others and respect for our own health.

When He hears that faith may be declared a psychological malady,I'm sure He hopes that we can all be "carriers" of grace and trigger epidemics of abundant living.

But,if we insist on going through the motions of "proper behavior for a believer" (even when those actions damage more than they bless),He might prefer to confine us to our beds.

We really don't have to cut holes in a roof and have our cots lowered into the sanctuary to reach God.

He is the Great Physician and He hasn't stopped making housecalls.

-- Posted by quantumcat on Wed, Sep 16, 2009, at 4:25 PM

We really don't have to cut holes in a roof and have our cots lowered into the sanctuary to reach God.